” …. I suddenly felt a chill go up my back, as though a spider had dropped inside my shirt and was creeping towards my neck.’Two Five Seven

OR PERHAPS, REVEL IN SADISTIC GLEE?

“As soon as the needle pierces your skin, you’ll feel a stinging, then, as the drain cleaner enters your vein, it will start to burn. The burning will make you want to tear apart your ﬂesh and dig into your own veins to relieve the pain…”Teatime

DO YOU TAKE A GHOULISH DELIGHT IN THE GROTESQUE?“His eyes were gone, the sockets filled with ﬂies that crawled and buzzed. His mouth, open and lipless, was a black hole of moving shapes. The odour was overwhelming.”Flies

Blurb:Coined in the 1950s, Kitchen Sink described British films, plays and novels frequently set in the North of England, which showed working class life in a gritty, no-nonsense, “warts and all” style, sometimes referred to as social realism. It became popular after the playwright John Osborne wrote Look Back In Anger, simultaneously helping to create the Angry Young Men movement. Films included Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, The Entertainer, A Taste of Honey, The L-Shaped Room and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. TV dramas included Coronation Street and East Enders. In recent years TV dramas that could rightly be described as kitchen sink gothic include Being Human, with its cast of working class vampires, werewolves and ghosts, and the zombie drama In the Flesh, with its northern working class, down to earth setting. In this anthology you will find stories that cover a wide range of Kitchen Sink Gothic, from the darkly humorous to the weirdly strange and occasionally horrific.

The Obsession of Percival CairstairsCall of the DamnedThe Revelations of Dr MaitlandTourist TrapFace to FaceThe Coughing CoffinThe Madness Out of the SeaDeath on the LineThe NecronomiconA Bit TastyA Fistful of VengeanceTo Summon a Flesh-Eating DemonThe Strombolli Collection

Blurb:Those that participate in the thirteen strange dark rites that comprise Black Ceremonies ﬁnd themselves at the mercy of sinister forces.

Make an invocation to evil. Witness the horrors of war. Hear the sound of death. Feel the hand of vengeance as it reaches out from the grave.

Are you ready to join the doomed and the damned?

“When it comes to dark and twisted tales, they don’t come much darker and more twisted than this. If you have a taste for the macabre, you really will be biting off as much as you can chew with this exciting debut collection from renowned editor and creator of the Black Books of Horror, Charles Black.” – Anna Taborska, author of For Those Who Dream Monsters

‘Charlie’s yarns are very entertaining.” Johnny Mains, editor of Best British Horror

As has maybe been mentioned on here, the Vault forum is where you’ll find the bulk of the contributors to this place, and if you’ve yet to register, now is as good a time as any. At present, we’re currently halfway through our fourth annual advent calendar, a daily treat in the run-up to Christmas featuring horror fiction, old and new, from several of our very favourite authors. Get with it at Vault – Your one-stop shop for festive mirth!

Those of you who’ve yet to investigate the Vault Forum might like to do so now as we’re currently compiling the 3rd Annual Vault Advent Calendar. Stories from a variety of ‘thirties pulp magazines & collections supplemented by works from such contemporary greats as Thana Niveau, John Llewellyn Probert, David. A. Riley, Franklin Marsh, Craig Herbertson, Paul Finch, Ramsey Campbell, James Doig, Johnny Mains, and Charles Black. You’ll need to register to download the stories, but hey, you can always delete your account when you’ve had enough! Many, many thanks to all who’ve given of their time and talent to help.

The Vault forum doesn’t leave me as much time as i’d like to post regular news updates, but there’s been plenty to report of late so lets get down to business.

Firstly, it is our sad duty to report that interzone books are no longer an ongoing concern. The TYPE shop still stands and is always worth a visit but, alas, no more row upon row of beloved pulp paperbacks to wade through! It was brilliant while it lasted and we thank Milan for all the effort he put in and wish him well with his future endeavours. We understand he is still planning for the Zardoz Book Fair on November 6th and it is highly likely there will be a scowling vault contingent staggering about the Plaza basement.

On the anthology front, personal favourite of recent months has been, predictably enough, Charles Black’s Eighth Black Book Of Horror. I hope to have copies of the Paul Finch edited Terror Tales Of The Lake District and Gary Fry’s Death Rattles (both Gray Friar Publications) shortly, so avoid our forum for next few weeks unless you wanna be subjected to my entirely worthless verdict on same.

Lots of magazines! As posted earlier, Justin Marriott’s indispensable Paperback Fanatic has now clocked up twenty superb issues in five years, an incredible achievement! The second issue of Martin Jones’ Bedabbled!: British Horror and Cult Cinema is imminent – a ‘Cult Of Satan’ special and, from a rough pdf i’ve seen, a very impressive beast it is, too. Have also received the first five issue’s of Cranston McMillan’s wildly entertaining a-bit-of-everthing-really! fanzine, Kontinental X. The links for these last two lead straight back to the Vault forum, mainly because neither mag has much of a web presence just yet though you can catch up with Martin on faceache.